Educational institutions constantly seek ways to leverage technology to educate their students. This includes using technology to create an interactive learning atmosphere where ideas can be more easily illustrated and shared with students. Recently, systems have been developed for using mobile devices, such as tablets, in a classroom environment. These mobile devices can be shared. For example, a classroom can have a set of tablets that get used by different students in each class. In addition, students can bring their own devices to use in the classroom in some situations.
To effectively use these mobile devices for education, a management system must be put in place. Without proper management tools, the mobile devices can become a distraction and even a means for cheating. For example, students might browse the Internet or access applications that ultimately distract from learning in class. As a result, schools must implement a system for managing the various devices in the classroom.
However, the complexities of implementing the management system can be cumbersome and prevent wide-scale technology adoption. Specifically, current systems can require an administrator to individually install applications on each user device. Schools can have thousands of students and large numbers of different classes. Devices can be shared among the different students and classes. Managing which applications to install on which devices can be a very time consuming and difficult task.
If administrators cannot easily setup devices for classroom use, then schools will not use the systems. For example, if all of the user devices for a given class are not setup with the right applications, files, and management configurations, the teacher can be distracted from educating the students in order to investigate technical issues. Some of the students might not be able to approach the lesson plan as intended. This results in the teacher deciding not to rely on the user devices as a teaching tool. Because of the setup complexities, the educational potential of fully integrated classroom user devices has gone largely unrealized. If the technology can be improved to ease setup burdens, an opportunity exists for enhanced education and widespread adoption of very promising educational technology.
As a result, a need exists to improve the technology for configuring and managing user devices in a classroom.